Bullying prevention program coming to Salinas elementary school

A child is bullied in the United States every seven minutes, with far-reaching consequences.

"School bullying and cyber-bullying are increasingly viewed as an important contributor to youth violence, including homicide and suicide," according to Ambassadors 4 Kids Clubs, an organization dedicated to fighting crimes against children in the U.S.

Now, the Monterey County Health Department is trying to find out if reducing bullying among young children will help prevent serious youth and gang violence later on.

This upcoming school year, Harmony at Home, a nonprofit that focuses on youth domestic violence in Monterey County, will implement a "whole-school" bullying prevention program at Los Padres Elementary School in Salinas.

"It's a school-wide, systemic, holistic approach to altering the culture and climate of a school," said program coordinator Frances "Pinkie" Weesner. "It involves all students, all members of the staff, faculty and administration, parents and community members."

The program got started with $13,460 from the Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE) initiative, a nationwide effort led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that approaches youth violence as a public health crisis.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program has been implemented in other countries and boasts more than 35 years of research and "successful implementation," according to its website. Its goal is to reduce existing bullying problems, prevent future bullying and help students relate better to their peers.

Los Padres Elementary will work as a test school for the program, while Sherwood Elementary School will be the "control" school. Harmony at Home and the Monterey County Behavioral Health Department will evaluate the program's effectiveness.

Harmony at Home has counselors in most elementary schools in Salinas, and they noticed bullying was a problem.

"We all began to talk about it. We all hear it from a variety of sources: teachers, administration," Weesner said. "It's always been a concern as long as there has been public schools."

Bullying is like an abusive relationship, said Linda McGlone, STRYVE coordinator at the county health department. Trying to have two children work out a problem doesn't work because one of them always has more power, she said.

The bullying program's focus on prevention fits perfectly with the goal of STRYVE, which was implemented in Salinas in 2011.

"We want agencies to adapt strategies that reduce youth violence, so we will provide some seed money to a few agencies that will adapt programs that work," McGlone said.

The health department works closely with the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace.

"We are building the health departments to work on violence and then supporting the coalition to make the kind of changes to solve the problem," McGlone said.

STRYVE'S focus on prevention is "data driven and inclusive," she said.

"We like to involve all the players to come up with the best strategy," McGlone said.

Next year, STRYVE hopes to provide seed money for a couple of local programs: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and YES, a youth leadership program.

The design program would look at ways to make neighborhoods safer through such means as landscaping and keeping parks and schools maintained.

YES teaches young people to advocate for issues that are important to them, then to seek funding for a project that would improve the quality of their neighborhood.

"It might be a mural, a park clean," said McGlone, "but really whatever the young people think would help."